Chapter 891: Shuffling crawl

Spirit Realm.

In the vast, endless desert, the space suddenly began to tremble.

With a series of cracking sounds, the fractured space grew larger, causing the entire world to shake as if a powerful spatial storm had emerged.

Spatial storms are considered one of the rarest natural disasters in the Spirit Realm. Even Void Shattering Stage cultivators find it hard to survive if caught in the storm's center. Ordinary people fear it immensely, as contact means certain death!

At this moment, a massive spatial storm was occurring here.

No one knew how much time had passed.

Suddenly, a few beams of white light appeared at the center of the fractured spatial storm, accompanied by faint spiritual power fluctuations, spreading out from within.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three beams of light shot out, landing in three different locations, burying themselves in the sand.

Shortly after the appearance of the three beams of light, the spatial storm vanished, and everything returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.

At this moment, three figures were buried in the sand: a black flood dragon, a white feathered serpent, and a big black dog.

All three had reverted to their original forms, their auras faintly perceptible. They were Xu Hei, Xu Bai, and Hei Huang, who had ascended from the mortal realm.

Xu Hei struggled to open his eyes and attempted to move, only to find his physical body almost shattered, his bones broken, and his meridians severed. The spiritual power within him was negligible.

Even worse, his divine sense was destroyed, and his primordial spirit was over seventy percent damaged.

Such life-threatening injuries should have rendered him unconscious, but he managed to stay awake through sheer willpower and the robust physical body granted by the White Emperor's scripture.

"This path of ascension is truly terrifying. Tian Jizi was struck once and disappeared completely; I don't even know if he's dead."

"Hei Huang was also severely injured in the primordial spirit with just a touch, and Xu Bai's healing technique couldn't save him."

"The God-Extinguishing Light is at least a thousand times stronger than the divine sense formation in Guanghan Palace, not something an ordinary Void Refinement stage cultivator can withstand!"

Recalling the encounters on the path of ascension, Xu Hei couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine, still haunted by the experience.

The tribulation in the first half was expected, and the four of them could resist it together. But as they progressed, things started to go awry.

Not only did the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning cause devastating damage to the physical body, but the God-Extinguishing Light mixed within could also annihilate the primordial spirit, something ordinary Void Shattering Stage cultivators couldn't possibly endure.

Only Xu Hei, with his strong physical body, could barely hold on even when his primordial spirit was severely injured.

Otherwise, he would have perished halfway!

"No wonder later generations all prove the Dao through strength. Without a strong physical body, it's impossible to survive this path of ascension."

Xu Hei pondered carefully and suddenly realized.

In the ancient times, Void Refinement stage cultivators primarily focused on the primordial spirit. If they encountered such an environment, the God-Extinguishing Light would mean certain death!

The Void Refinement stage gradually became obsolete, and the cultivation method focusing on the physical body gained popularity, allowing one to survive the path of ascension.

Who set these tribulation rules?

Xu Hei couldn't change the rules. He was merely a participant, a pawn, forced to adapt to the rules.

He threw all his storage bags and storage rings into the Demon God Cauldron to prevent losing them.

However, his divine sense was completely gone, making it impossible to retrieve anything from the Demon God Cauldron.

Xu Hei sighed, poking his head out to take deep breaths of the Spirit Realm's spiritual qi, absorbing it into his body and beginning to refine and absorb it in the most primitive way.

A day later.

Xu Hei barely recovered a trace of vitality. He glanced in the direction of Xu Bai and Hei Huang. The places where they had fallen were now covered by sand, leaving no trace.

Their situation was no better than Xu Hei's.

Xu Hei, relying on the sixth layer of the White Emperor's scripture, could barely stay conscious, while the other two were still in a state of unconsciousness.

Xu Hei twisted his body, crawling forward. Each step felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and his whole body was in excruciating pain.

His bones were all broken, and his meridians were shattered, making it extremely difficult to move even a step.

However, he persevered, crawling to within a hundred feet of Xu Bai, relieved to find that she still had a faint breath.

At this moment, Xu Bai had transformed into a small white snake, no different from her original form years ago.

"With my current strength, I can't even handle a Core Formation cultivator. My divine sense is gone, and I can't feel any cultivation. This ascension is truly terrifying," Xu Hei thought to himself.

Without compressed spiritual power, the White Emperor's scripture couldn't operate.

Fortunately, Xu Hei's physical foundation remained. Ordinary cultivators would find it extremely difficult to kill him, unable to break through his defenses.

"Strange! After ascending to the Spirit Realm, there should be cultivators from the Flying Spirit Platform to receive us. Why haven't I seen a single person?"

Xu Hei craned his neck, looking around. This place was a vast desert, with not even a ghostly figure in sight, let alone the Flying Spirit Platform.

Apart from the occasional rustling of sandworms, there was no other living creature.

Xu Hei sighed and continued cultivating.

…………

Unknowingly, three days passed.

While absorbing spiritual qi, Xu Hei also tried consuming a few sandworms to replenish his vitality, with surprisingly good results.

It was his first time eating Spirit Realm insects, and they were unexpectedly nourishing, showing signs of slowly reconnecting his damaged meridians.

This made Xu Hei quite excited. Even if he could reconnect just one meridian, he could utilize a trace of spiritual power.

Although his cultivation was crippled, with the quality of his true essence, even a tiny bit could shatter an Elemental Infant stage cultivator to pieces.

Thus, after devouring about a dozen sandworms, Xu Hei finally reconnected a part of his first meridian, allowing him to access a trace of spiritual power.

"Wait, someone's coming!"

Xu Hei's keen hearing sensed movement a hundred miles away, something approaching.

Judging by the footsteps, there were humans and the sound of wheels. Based on the cultivation levels, most were Foundation Establishment cultivators, with three at the Core Formation stage.

At Xu Hei's level, he didn't need divine sense; just by hearing, he could roughly gauge the strength of the approaching individuals. There might be some error, but not by much.

"Since they're humans..."

Xu Hei's mind stirred, and he transformed into his human form.

He lay on the ground, motionless. Not that he was pretending to be dead, but he truly couldn't move.

Earlier, when he devoured sandworms, he relied on waiting for a chance, luring the sandworms close, and only needed to stretch his neck to eat them, rather than chasing them.

"Look, there's someone ahead."

"Let's go check it out."

With a burst of discussion, soon, two Foundation Establishment cultivators ran up to Xu Hei.

The three Core Formation cultivators were seated in three carriages behind. Xu Hei glanced briefly and knew there were two women and one man.

Two of them swept their divine sense over Xu Hei, who was unprepared, feeling as if he had been seen through.

"Fellow Daoist, three days ago, was there a spatial storm here?"

One of the Foundation Establishment cultivators approached and cupped his fists, asking.

Xu Hei lay on the sand, looking at him without moving or speaking.